Tuesday, November 30, 2010

SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SNC) Overview

SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SNC) is a component of SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM). It was formerly known as SAP Inventory Collaboration Hub (SAP SNC). Because enhancements broadened the collaboration environment, the product was renamed to reflect its extended capabilities for collaboration with suppliers (extending beyond inventory collaboration).

The supplier does not require a specialized electronic data interchange (EDI) infrastructure to integrate the supply network, which SNC makes this solution usable by companies of all sizes. All that is required on the supplier side is Internet access and a web browser.

It serves as a joint-use platform for all business partners involved in the inventory collaboration process.

Supply Chain Collaboration is a key area in the mySAP SCM solution that supports collaborative planning and the exchange of documents with suppliers and customers. Collaborative planning can be done in the SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SNC) or in APO.

You can use SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SNC)to optimize cooperation with your vendors. You and your vendors use SAP ICH as a common platform to control and monitor the replenishment process for materials.

For example, the vendor takes on responsibility for the stocks at your location. You and your business partner make an agreement about the minimum and maximum stock levels for the product at this location. The vendor monitors the stock level you have agreed upon with the SAP ICH system, making sure your stocks are replenished promptly and informs you about waiting deliveries. This ensure production flows smoothly and without any downtimes.Both business partners can check the stock level of all materials using the SAP SNC system. The SAP SNC system generates alerts and informs both partners about critical situations which enable them to react promptly. Employees can make individual settings about how they would like to be informed of these alerts,

like for instance by e-mail. This is especially helpful for employees that do not work with SAP SNC on a daily basis.

Customer Collaboration:

Using the VMI process, a VMI analyst develops an unrestricted forecast about future customer demands. Certain statistical forecasting and extrapolation methods are applied to historical sales data transferred from the customer when making this forecast.By means of replenishment planning, you can then determine quantities to be

delivered to a customer location (such as a distribution center) in order to meet customer demand and maintain the required degree of service. Starting with the requirements forecast, the replenishment process determines the optimum short and medium-term plan, which is required to meet the estimated requirement. This plan contains the quantites to be transported from the vendor distribution center (or production plant) to the customer distribution center (or branch).

Feasible transportation units can then be assembled based on business rules. Such rules concern constraints for the relevant means of transportation. This ensures that the appropriate minimum and maximum capacities are kept to.

In the consumer goods industry, menu pricing agreements bewteen vendors and cusomters are defining for these business rules. These agreements specify how transportation loads are to be put together with respect to logistical parameters such as permitted product and pallet combination, maximum weight and volume.

It is in the interests of both vendors and customers to optimize the cost-use situation in order to increase the overall profitability of the supply chain. In this way, transportation and storage costs are kept to a minimum for vendors.

Customers achieve extremely profitable replenishment intervals without their warehouse becoming overstocked and are at the same time in a position to react quickly to short-term fluctuations in demand.

So where do we collaborate exactly,

Customers at Finished good Replenishment.

Suppliers at Raw Material Procurement.

Integration Levels:

There are three integration levels available in between customer and supplier when we are talking about SAP SNC

1.Web portal – generally this can be using when in low transaction volumes

2.File Transfer – When supplies having limited internet connectivity this can be used

3.B2B – One of the best one for high transaction volumes

Data Flow in SAP SNC:

We know how the data will transfer from ECC to APO system. When we are talking about the data transfer in between these two systems core interface(CIF) plays a vital role while transferring the Master data between ECC and SNC system. But the transactional data can be able to transfer through an middle ware too called Process Integration.

ECC Master Data:

Plant

Material

Vendor Master

Info Records

Customer Master

Scheduling Agreements

SNC Master Data:

1.Generic Master Data.

2. Process-specific Master Data

Generic Master Data:

Model 000,

Planning version 000,

Ship-from location,

Customer location,

Products,

Customer,

Supplier,

Transportation Lane between ship from location and customer location.

Process-specific Master Data:

You maintain process specific master data for certain SNC business processes, example for work order collaboration master data is required before we start working on the scenario.

Tcode : /SCA/MFGCFG

Data Storage in SAP SNC:

SAP SNC has its own data storage model, consisting of Time Series Data Management, or TSDM, which stores and retrieves time series data such as forecasts Order Data Management, or ODM, which stores and retrieves order documents of any type that might occur in an SCM execution or planning process, such as purchase orders or deliveries Lean Inventory Management, or LIME, which stores and retrieves inventory data.

The liveCache in which SAP APO stores transaction data is not used by SAP ICH.

You do not need to configure Time Series Data Management in order to run the basic SNC processes.

You need to activate Order Data Management, but no further configuration is required.